Everyone’s old second favourite club, Swansea City, is one of my picks to be relegated this season. There are a few notable players in this team that can provide you with some good points in the forthcoming draft fantasy football season but without a couple more quality signings, then it could be a long season for the Swans.

Goalkeepers

There’s should really only be one man in goal for Swansea City again this season and that’s the man that played all but one game last season in goal for Swansea City, Łukasz Fabiański. In the 16/17 season, Fabiański was the 8th highest scoring goalkeeper, which isn’t bad considering Swansea City were primarily around the bottom of the league last season.

It’s the Heaton Rule again for Fabiański, he’s going to make up the points dropped in conceding with bonus points for saves made. He won’t be the first keeper to go but do expect him to be picked up by the 8th or 9th round.

Fabiański though has a bit more competition this year. Paul Clements first signing of the summer was the free transfer of Erwin Mulder. Once an exciting prospect, he has since gone off the radar slightly but it’ll be worth keeping an eye out on him as he could be pushing for the number 2 spot from Kristoffer Nordfeldt, whose contract only has a year left to run.

Defenders

One player who seemed to come out of nowhere last season was Alfie Mawson. The youngster was playing in the lower leagues until Swansea City plucked him from Barnsley. Last season, Mawson broke through with some brilliant performances and towards the back end of the season, he was adding goals to his name. Last season he went to someone unchallenged in our league once it was realized that he was playing regularly, this year, he’ll be drafted.

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Federico Fernández will be the man to partner Alfie Mawson again in the middle of the defense, Paul Clement got this defensive partnership growing in confidence towards the end of last season and there’s no need to break them up for now, barring injury.

Another player that will be picked up is Kyle Naughton. The right back offers quite a bit to a fantasy team as he does well when going forward providing assists and the odd goal. It’s the same story with Martin Olsson, Olsson though is a bit more prolific than Naughton so if you find yourself with a choice between the two, go for Olsson.

It’s the same story for Swansea defenders when it comes to fantasy football as it is for many other mid to lower league clubs, they offer some solid dependable players but they may not be the highest points scorers. Mawson is the highest points taker on the game for now and he’s at number 50 overall in the defenders.

Mawson, Olsson and Naughton should all be good pickups for a 3rd or 4th choice defender which should see them still available around the 8th round onwards.

Midfielders

Where would Swansea City be without Gyfil Sigurðsson? Well, probably the Championship. Gyfil was phenomenal for Swansea City last season with 9 goals and 13 assists. He is their main man and if they buckle and sell him this summer then it’s a big loss for Swansea City. It might not be just Swansea City that it’s a huge loss to, we’ve seen Gyfil playing somewhere where he’s not the main man and it did not work out well for him. Hopefully, Gyfil stays on at Swansea City and continues his high point scoring ways. He’ll be gone by the 3rd round, so I wouldn’t wait on bringing him in this season.

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Another player who could be crucial for Swansea City this season is Leroy Fer. The midfielder chipped in with 6 goals and 2 assists last season and at 27, he should now be hitting his prime and being partnered alongside new signing Roque Mesa could provide Fer with a bit more freedom to roam the pitch and get involved more.

Roque Mesa looks to have been brought into the club as a replacement/improvement on the now departed Jack Cork. Mesa could benefit well from the Kante Rule being in effect, he’s not known for his goals so it may be best to see how he settles in this season before looking to bring him into your team.

Wayne Routledge will be looking to improve on his poor returns from last season, 3 goals in a struggling team is okay but only 2 assists really needs to be improved upon

As to when to be looking to draft Swansea City players? It’d be smart to snap up Gyfil in the 3rd round if he’s available as he most likely won’t be when your turn comes around again, s for the rest of the Swansea midfield, they could be good pickups for the later rounds and may well still be available for free after the draft.

Forwards

The £15mil signing of Borja Bastón really did not work out well last season, he has since left the club. The £5mil signing of Fernando Llorente though worked out really well. 15 goals for Llorente was a great return and I hope that the rumours of him leaving to be second string at Chelsea do just stay as rumours. We need proven strikers in the league and Llorente has enough behind him to not let you think that he could just be an older Michu (the greatest one season wonder?). Expect Llorente to be picked up in the 2nd or 3rd round if he stays on at Swansea.

Swansea City may be keener to profit on Llorente than they will be with Gyfil Sigurðsson as it’s looking like Wilfried Bony may, in fact, be returning. If that’s true, it could be worth trying to forget the imposter that stood in for Bony at Stoke City and look to bring him back into your team but it’s still currently all newspaper gossip.

One player that is definitely at Swansea City for this season is the exciting prospect from Chelsea (where else?), Tammy Abraham. The joint 2nd highest goal scorer in the Championship (with 23 goals) will be looking to establish himself this season and I hope it works out. I reckon he’ll be picked up in the draft and maybe earlier than expected, possibly going in the first 5 rounds.

Wildcard

I’m going with Tammy Abraham, he may not start every game but it could be an exciting season for the youngster. If he has a strong start then he can push for a starting place which he’ll be wanting to keep. As I just stated above, I reckon someone will go in early for him as one of their gambles all season.

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Conclusion

I still think that a difficult season is ahead for Swansea City but there is still enough potential in the team for us draft managers to pick up some good points from this team. Gyfil Sigurðsson will be picked up first with Llorente not far behind him. If Bony signs than he’s worth another shot and Abraham is my wildcard. Mawson, if he continues his good run of form from last season, could be a handy defensive pick up.